Conventional media services provide scheduled programs on viewing devices, such as a television set. Standard broadcast services provide channels that can be received by virtually any television tuner through an antenna connector. At the same time, cable services typically offer packages of preselected channels to the consumers and that required a decoder at the television tuner or on the cable line at an external location. Cable services continuously broadcast scheduled programming through a pre-selected set of channels which are received through a cable connector on a television set. There are also a number of pay-per-view services that allow consumers to receive premium program transmissions through the cable network. Other available services include satellite programming services that provide a service similar to that provided by cable services. Some cable or satellite services allow consumers to select on demand pay-per view-programs from a set of available programs.
With the number of available TV channels increasing, the viewer has a wide range of programs from which to choose. Search and selection of desired programming for a consumer can be time consuming. Channel surfing is no longer fast enough to allow getting an overview of all channels. Daily newspapers and other paper publications have long provided channel listings, often using a grid format that shows what programs are on what channel at what time. However, the amount of TV programs typically exceed the limits of what can reasonably be printed. Further, a newspaper or other publication is not always available to the viewer when the viewer decides to watch television. Attempting to meet this problem of information overload and changing requirements, set-top boxes and televisions with integrated electronic program guides (“EPGs”) have emerged.
Electronic program guides are on-screen guides or programming schedules that provide program listings for channels that are broadcast or provided by a cable system. Prior art electronic program guides offer online searching through program listings and schedules by genre, title or data. When a television viewer uses such a schedule, the viewer can find a program of interest, identify the channel, and enter the number into a remote control device.
One such prior art electronic program guide is shown in FIG. 1. The prior art guide 100 includes a list of channels 110, a time schedule 120, a grid display 130 of programs, and a description section 140 for conveying additional text information about the programs. The programs are displayed consecutively for each channel in the form of a grid. The prior art guide 100, however, is deficient for many reasons. The prior art guide 100 typically includes content from only a single content provider (i.e. a broadcast television network having a predetermined schedule). Thus, the prior art guide 100 does not provide the viewer with the capability of, or comprehensive information about, purchasing or receiving pay-per-view events, on demand programming, streaming media content off the Internet, accessing content from two or more providers at the same guide, or accessing content from consumer electronic devices such as DVD players and VCRs. The prior art guide 100 also has a static time range and can only display shows within that time range. As shown in FIG. 1, the time schedule 120 displays two hours of schedule information. In the case of a two-hour movie, the viewer is not provided with any information as to what program will appear immediately following the two-hour movie. The viewer is also left with the burden of navigating through the guide by scrolling back and forth. In addition, the prior art guide 100 does not provide display information showing where, for example, a selected program is being played. For example, in a modem home entertainment system where the viewer can play a DVD located in the family room on a television located in a bedroom, the prior art guide 100 does not have the capability of visually displaying what content is being displayed by what output device.
What is needed is an electronic programming guide that is adaptable to various sources of content such as scheduled-based broadcast content, digitally stream-able on-demand multimedia content, and controllable consumer electronic devices. What is also needed is a programming guide that includes both the sources of content available to a user as well as any output device or devices for displaying the content sources.